Dual-listed media and entertainment group Naspers announced on Monday that its subsidiary MIH will invest in the soon-to-be listed Beijing Media Corporation, a marketing and advertising sales vehicle for print media in China.
MIH will buy 9,9% in the initial public offering of BMC, which will be floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 22. The price of the investment will be determined as part of the institutional book-build and public offering process leading up to the IPO, Naspers added.
BMC plans to raise approximately $HK677-million (R501-million) to $HK778-million (R576-million) of new capital in the IPO. Naspers said these funds were to be used to expand and grow the business into an integrated entity, taking advantage of the rapidly growing advertising market in China.
The state-owned BMC has the exclusive long-term rights to market, distribute and sell advertising in the Beijing Youth Daily — the capital’s second largest newspaper by circulation. Editorial functions of the paper are excluded and remain with the present owner, Beijing municipal government.
Beijing Youth Daily is said to address an attractive market for advertisers, and ranks first in Beijing by advertising revenue, as well as in the top three in all of China.
Naspers has operations located in South Africa, Africa, Thailand, The Netherlands, Greece and Cyprus. In China the group also has interests in Internet group Sportcn while it has a 36% stake in Hong Kong-listed Tencent. – I-Net Bridge